Biographical Sketch
Name: Vincent L. Pecoraro
Position Title: John T. Groves Collegiate Professor of Chemistry; Research Scientist, Biophysics Research Division.
Education:
Institute | Degree | Year | Field (Advisor) |
University of California, Los Angeles CA | B.S. Biochemistry | 1977 | Biochemistry (W.F. Libby) |
University of California, Berkeley CA | Ph.D. Chemistry | 1981 | Chemistry (K.N. Raymond) |
University of Wisconsin, Madison WI | Postdoctoral Researcher | 1984 | Biochemistry (W.W. Cleland) |
Click here to see a family tree of the Pecoraro group.
Professional Experience:
- Present
- John T. Groves Collegiate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Senior
- Research Scientist, Biophysics Research Division, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Membership in Institutes and Interdisciplinary Programs (U of M)
- Center for Molecular Genetics (Exec. Comm., 1987-90),
- Molecular Biophysics Training Program (PI, 1989-90),
- Cellular Biotechnology Training Program
- Chemistry Biology Interface Training Program (Director, 2004-)
- Chemical Biology Ph.D. Program (Program Committee, 2004-)
- Blaise Pascal International Chair for Research, University of Paris-11 (2011-12)
- 1992-2005 Professor, Department of Chemistry
- 4/1998 Professeur Visité, Université de Paris-Sud (11), Orsay, France
- 1-8/98 Visiting Professor, Wilhelms Westfalische Universität, Münster, Germany
- 8-12/97 Visiting Research Scientist, Merck Central Research, Rahway
- 1989-92 Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- 1-6/1991 Visiting Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- 1984-9 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Professional Societies
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow 2001-)
- American Chemical Society
- American Society of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists
- Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry
- Sigma Xi
- Alpha Chi Sigma (Chemistry Fraternity)
Honors, Award and Fellowships
- National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow (1981-1984)
- Horace H. Rackham Foundation Fellow (1985)
- Eli Lilly Foundation Fellow (1985)
- G.D. Searle Biomedical Research Scholar (1986-1989)
- Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (1989-1990)
- LS&A Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction (1991)
- Faculty Recognition Award, University of Michigan (1993)
- ACS Akron Section Award for Excellence in Chemistry (1995)
- Frontier’s Lecturer, Texas A & M University (1996)
- Mary Kapp Lecturer, Virginia Commonwealth University (1997)
- Karcher Lecturer, University of Oklahoma (1999)
- PittCon Lecturer, Duquesne University (2004)
- Alexander Von Humboldt Award for Senior US Scientists (1998-99)
- Chair, Metals in Biology Gordon Conference (2000)
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000)
- US Young Investigator for IUPAC Assembly (2001)
- Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Award in the Sciences (2004-5)
- Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, University of Michigan (2008)
- La Chaire Internationale des Recherche Blaise Pascal (2010-2012)
- Taiwan National Lecturer (2010)
- ACS Fellow (2010)
- Vanadis Award (2010)
- ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry (2016)
- Luigi Sacconi Memorial Lecture, University of Florence, Florence, Italy (2016)
- Kenneth N. Raymond Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley (2017)
Research Interest
- Present:
- Synthetic models for the active site structure and chemical mechanism of manganese enzymes. Biological chemistry of vanadium. Development of the chemistry of Metallacrowns. De Novo metallopeptide design.
- 8/84
- The use of cobalt(III) and chromium(III) nucleotides to elucidate the mechanism of phosphoryl transfer in kinases. Stability, structure and metal ion exchange kinetics of M(II) nucleotide phosphorothioates.
- 8/81
- Determination of the metal binding residues in transferrin.
Stability of Fe(III), Ga(III) and In(III) complexes of multidentate
catecholate chelating agents. Mechanism of iron transport to
bacteria by siderophores.
- Determination of the metal binding residues in transferrin.
Research Group (as in Fall, 2019)
- 5 Graduate Students, 4 Undegraduate Students, 2 Visiting Scholars
Ph.D. Theses
- Jacob Lutter, 2018, “Refining Lanthanide Luminescence in Metallacrowns by Systematic Alteration of Hydroxamic Ligands”
- Catherine Mocny, 2016, “Examining the Metal Selectivity of Thiol Rich de Novo Designed Peptides as a Strategy to Make Asymmetric Alpha-helical Protein Assemblies”
- Leela Ruckthong, 2016, “Crystallographic Comparison of Tris-Thiolate Sites in Designed Proteins to Control Metal Geometries”
- Alison Tebo, 2015, “De Novo Design Metallopeptides toInvestigate Metal Ion Homoestasis, Electron Transfer, and Redox Catalysis”
- Jefferson Plegaria, 2015, “De Novo Design of Copper Metallopeptides Capable of Electron Transfer: From Design to Function”
- Chun Y Chow, 2015, “Modulating the Single-Molecule Magnet, Magnetocaloric and Luminescent Behavior in Metallacrowns”
- Fangting Yu, 2014, “De Novo design Cu Nitrite Reductases”
- Melissa Zastrow, 2013, “De Novo Design Zn Hydrolases”
- Thadeus Boron, III, 2012, “Metallacrown Molecular Magnets”
- Joseph Jankolovits, 2012, “Assembly, Solution Thermodynamics and Luminescent Properties of Metallacrowns”
- Saumen Chakraborty, 2010, “Structural and Spectroscopic Analysis of Cd binding de novo Designed Peptides”
- Curtis Schneider, 2008, “Synthetic and Computational Models for Biomimetic Chiral Sulfoxidations”
- Choongsun Lim, 2008, “Metallacrowns as Hosts”
- Debdip Ghosh, 2006, “Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Heavy Metal Binding to de Novo Designed Peptides”
- Curtis Zaleski, 2005, “Characterization of Metallacrowns as Single Molecule Magnets”
- Joslyn Yudenfreund Kravitz, 2005, “Computational Studies of Vanadium Haloperoxidases” (co-advisor with Prof. H. Carlson)
- Manolis Matzepetakis, 2004, “De Novo Design of Heavy Metal Binding Proteins”
- Annabel Van Noord, 2003, “Molecular Recognition by Chiral 15-Metallacrown-5 Metallamacrocycles”
- Wen-Yuan Hsieh, 2002, “Synthesis and Reactivity of High Valent Manganese Complexes”
- Tom Smith II, 2001, “Spectroscopic and Reactivity Models for Vanadium Haloperoxidases”
- Jeffrey J. Bodwin, 2001, “Designing Solids Using Metallacrowns”
- Aaron Small, 2000, “Test of the Immiscibility Concept for the Induction of Smectic Layering in Nematic Liquid Crystals” (Co-advisor with Prof C. Pugh)
- Neil Law, 1999, “Models for the Reactivity of Mn di-m2-oxo cores in the Oxygen Evolving Complex”
- Brent Hamstra, 1997, “Models of Vanadium Haloperoxidases”
- Ann B. Stemmler, 1996, “Synthetic Strategies for Expanding the Scope of Metallacrowns”
- Gregg Dieckmann, 1995, “Use of Metal Binding De Novo Designed a-Helical peptides in the Study of Metalloprotein Structures”
- Andrew Gelasco, 1995 “Low Valent Manganese Complexes as Functional Models for the Mn Catalases and the Alternate Catalase Reaction of the Oxygen Evolving Complex”
- Brian R. Gibney, 1994 “12-Metallacrown-4: A Structural and Functional Analogue of 12-crown-4”
- Salman Mustafa Saadeh, 1992 “Manganese Complexes with an All Oxygen Coordination Environment as Models for Mn Ligninase”
- Erlund John Larson, 1991 “Synthetic Models for the Oxygen Evolving Complex and Manganese Catalase”
- Myoung Soo Lah, 1990 “Development of Metallacrowns and Preparation of Magnetic Chains”
- Linda Maxine Briggs, 1990 “Cloning, Expression and Copper Based Regulation of Plastocyanin from Synechocystis 6803″
- David James Detlefsen, 1990 “Binding and Structural Studies of Modified Electron Transfer Proteins of Bacterial Respiration”
- Xinhua Li, 1989 “Preparation of Synthetic Models for the Oxygen Evolving Complex and Vanadium Bromperoxidase”